3. Coercer Spells - 3.1. Introduction
These are the tools of the trade. In this section I will provide a compressive
summary of all the spells you learn as a Coercer. Coercer spells can be broken down
into 8 general Categories: Crowd Control, Damage Spells, Debuffs, Power Drains and
Taps, Single Target Buffs, Group Buffs, Cannibalization Spells, and What I refer to as
your “Uh-oh” spells – spells that may be able to get you out of serious trouble. There are
several spells that can fall under two or more of these categories, which allows Coercers
to be very versatile in their strategy. With just a two or three casts, a well played coercer
will have touched upon all of these abilities – providing the opportunity to implement the
appropriate strategy early in the fight.
Here, I will also give advice as to which spells you should upgrade, and to what
degree. A general rule of thumb to follow when it comes to upgrading spells: always
upgrade the final spell in any spell line as much as you can. These are the spells you will
use until further expansions are released, so it is important for these spells to be powerful.
Also, your spells are upgraded about every 14 levels, so any spells you receive from level
57 to 60 are not likely to be upgraded in the next expansion.

The First 20 Levels

Once you create your character, you still have a ways to go before you can call

yourself a Coercer – you must first become a mage and an enchanter! Here I will guide

you through your first 20 levels in general terms. It is possible to reach level 20 after just

a few days, but take all the time you want. When I leveled up I tried to move through the

first 20 levels as fast as I could, but I had the benefit of seeing my friends play the game

for months before I started. I knew where I was going, and I also knew how to do the bare

minimum necessary to advance quickly (I am also not a fan of questing!) However, you

should explore and quest as much as you choose, the opportunity abounds. EQ2 is a

beautifully designed game; you should get the most out of it!

Life as a Mage and Becoming and Enchanter

After you have created your character, the fun begins. Once you get off the boat,

you will receive a quest to speak to the man by the docks. After you hail him, answer his

questions. Be sure to tell him that you want to be a MAGE. He will give you some gear

and ask you to kill a Goblin outside the fortress. Equip the gear, figure out how you want

to arrange your hot-bars – it will change, so don’t worry too much about it – and go! After

you complete the task, the man will send you to speak to a mage at the top of the tower in

the fortress. This mage will give you a series of quests that will take you all over the

island and will reward you with your first set of equipment. Once this set of quests is

complete, it is time to start thinking about leaving the island.

On the Island of Refuge you can only reach level 6, but you can accumulate 220%

extra XP. You cannot attain level 7 until you take the boat to Freeport and obtain

citizenship. Some may recommend staying on the island and getting to level 6 +220%

while you are still on the island – but I disagree. I think you should amass as much extra

XP as you want before you leave the island, but know that you will only receive XP

completing the tasks you receive in Freeport to become a citizen if your XP is not maxed

at the time you complete it. So, I would get to about level 6 +150% XP, then head to

Freeport by speaking to the people around the house in the back bay of the island. Head

back to the docks and ring the bell!

After you complete your Citizenship quest, you can reach level 9 +220% - but you

will not attain level 10 until you complete your class quest. At level 8, you can obtain your

class quest from the NPC standing outside the Library/Mage tower at the top of the hill in

North Freeport. Make sure you tell her you want to be an enchanter!! You will have to

complete some menial tasks, and then defeat an instance to become a chanter. The

instance can be found within the tower. Around the corner to the left inside the library,

there are 2 elevators – one goes up, one goes down. Take the down elevator by using

the highlight-able “clicky” that is right next to it. From there, you will find the door to your

instance. You may not want to try this instance until you are level 9 because it is pretty

tricky. You will enter the instance, and see a ratonga that you must kill. However, when

you approach him, 2 adds will spawn and try to kill you. To beat this instance, here is

what you do:

1. Root the Named.

2. Back up.

3. DoT one of the Adds, and nuke it.

4. When root’s recast is up, root the other add, and back away from it.

5. Kill the add that has the DoT on it.

6. Re-root the Named

7. Kill the other add.

8. Kill the Named.

This may take a few tries, but don’t feel bad – it took me 4. Once you beat this instance,

you can ding level 10 and become an enchanter!

As far as gear goes at the early levels – there is really no need to feel like you

need every slot filled until you get into your 20’s. Money is tight and items are hard to find

at this level, but keep an eye on the broker for any sweet deals.

Life as an Enchanter and Becoming a Coercer

The road from level 10 to level 20 is very short. It is possible to get through these

10 levels in a day without a problem. The amount of time you spend doing quests and

exploring obviously affects this. Once you reach level 18, you can receive your Coercer

subclass quest from a mage in the library in North Freeport. He will ask you to kill the

strangely-stitched zombie that spawns around Zarvonn’s Tower in the Commonlands –

take the griffon to Nek Station and head towards Fallen Gate about 500 feet. This fight

should not be a challenge for you by level 19. After the Zombie is dead, return to the

mage, who will then send you to an instance to become a Coercer. This instance is very

easy compared to the level 10 quest. You will need to kill a few Skeletons in a tower, then

inspect (right click) a desk on one of the levels, and go to the bottom of the tower. There

is one last mob down there, so watch out. Congratulations, you are Coercer!

Races and Attributes
As a beginning Coercer creating your character, the most important difference to
note is that Coercers are aligned with the City of Freeport – they are an “Evil” class –
where as Illusionists are “Good.” and aligned with the city of Qeynos. This is important in
terms of creating a character because when selecting a race, it is essential to realize that
certain races can only be Evil or Good. As a Coercer, you must choose 1. an Evil race,
2. a Neutral Race, or 3. a Good race, and then complete the Qeynos to Freeport betrayal
quest. However, the betrayal quests are extremely difficult and very time intensive. Your
character will not be able to level above 18 until your betrayal quest is complete. For this
reason, betrayal is not recommended….unless you are up for the challenge!
When choosing a race, there are a few considerations to keep in mind in addition
to city alignment. You should pick a race that you find visually appealing. Also, you
should choose a race with base statistics that will serve you well as a Coercer, so it is
important to understand these statistics. The base statistics – and their functions – are as
follows:
Intelligence: Magic Damage Modifier and Mage Power Pool Bonus
Agility: Avoidance and Accuracy of Physical Damage
Wisdom: Magic Damage Mitigation and Priest Power Pool
Stamina: Total maximum hit points:
Strength: Melee Damage Modifier and Carrying Capacity
The most important base statistics for a Coercer are Intelligence, Agility, and Wisdom.
Many Coercers list the relative importance of choosing races, traits, and items
based on these stats as follows: 1. Agility, 2. Wisdom, 3. Intelligence. There is a good
reason for this. Agility is very important, since it can potentially save your life by allowing
you to dodge a deadly blow, and it is hard to come by as a mage. Most mage gear is
heavy in intelligence, but it is hard to find agility items for cloth armor wearers. As a
Coercer, you will receive buffs to your agility (and your intelligence – you are very
fortunate for this), but you can never have too much physical damage avoidance. The
same goes for wisdom. While magical damage mitigation is not as important, wisdom is
often a difficult stat for mages to increase.
However, while this is the majority opinion, there is an outspoken minority that
places Intelligence above all – and I am with them! Because Mages wear cloth armor, it
doesn’t take much to kill them. If a Coercer pulls agro on a Named or an Epic, the
Coercer is going to die 9 times out of 10. Further, when you are soloing, you have to try
everything you can to keep the mob off of you so you can cast quickly and make the mob
die fast – so physical and magical mitigation are not crucial. What really makes a
difference for mages is the size of their power pool and their DPS – both of which are
influenced to an enormous degree by intelligence. Each point of intelligence raises your
power pool and damage exponentially – up to a cap equal to 7 times your level. (Level 10
cap = 70 Intelligence, level 60 cap = 420 Intelligence...but Coercers everywhere agree this
cap seems low!) Plus, there is a certain prestige that comes with a large Intelligence stat
and huge power pool!
Based solely on the primary statistics each race has to start, these are the best
recommendations for Coercer races: Gnome, Ratonga, Dark Elf, and Erudite. The
majority view of these would probably rank the races as follows: 1. Ratonga, 2. Gnome, 3.
Dark Elf, 4. Erudite. The minority view would most likely rank the choices like this: 1.
Erudite, 2. Gnome, 3. Dark Elf, 4. Ratonga. In the end, it is up to you which race you
choose!

The Road to Coercer
Although the choices you make when creating a character in EQ2 are not as
important as other games, your choices will be with you throughout the life of your
character. When creating your character, there are a few things to keep in mind, and I willreview them here.
Enchanters: Coercers and Illusionists
In EQ2, there are two subclasses of Enchanters: Coercers and Illusionists. In
general the two subclasses of Enchanters are fairly equal. Coercers regenerate more
power for their group than any other class. Coercers can also “charm” opponents –
placing the enemy under your control and coercing them to do your bidding – while
Illusionists are able to create an illusory duplicate of themselves. In terms of damage,
Coercers’ damage potential is far greater than Illusionists because Coercers can force the
mob to inflict damage on itself, but Illusionists have more dependable damage in the form
of procs that are triggered when ever a spell strikes an opponent – and they can cast this
proc on allies. Illusionists also have a slight advantage in crowd control with their multiple
mez spells. In the end, both subclasses of Enchanters are challenging and entertaining to
play. Both solo effectively, both bring a great deal to a group, and both are welcomed by
raids and raiding guilds alike. The major reasons that I chose Coercer were the ability to
charm enemies, the potential to inflict huge amounts of damage, superior power
regeneration, and the high demand for enchanters among raiding guilds.

your weapon. However, melee can be used to describe entire
classes – fighters and scouts are melee classes.
Mez
Mesmerize – the quintessential form of crowd control, mezzing a
mob stuns it, making it stand still forever. However, mez is very
fragile, and any amount of damage done or power drained from
a mezzed mob will awake the mob – breaking mez.
Mob
The generic term for any attackable creature in the game.
MT
Main Tank – The tank that will be holding agro and taking
damage.
NPC
Non Player Character – Refers to all mobs in the game, but also
to all entities that cannot be attacked as well.
Nuke
A direct damage spell.
PBAOE
Point Blank Area of Effect – Unlike AOE spells that are
encounter-based, PBAOE spells affect all enemies within a given
radius. This means that PBAOE spells can affect multiple
encounters at once, but PBAOE spells can also affect enemies
that were not attacking yet – it can agro these mobs, causing
them to add. PBAOE spells also break mez.
PC
Player Character – Refers to other players in the game.
PvP
Player vs. Player – Dueling between Player characters is PvP,
but in EQ2 PvP can also refer to the arena games in Maj’Dul.
PvP is distinct from PvE – Player vs. Environment (i.e. mobs.)
Root
Generally refers to spells that chain a mob in place, preventing it
from moving. The mob can still inflict melee damage.
Stifle/Silence
A stifled mob cannot use spells or combat abilities – it can only
swing their weapon. Stifle is a very powerful defensive ability,
but it can work against the Coercer’s DPS so it must be used
wisely.
Tank
Generally refers to players of the Fighter class. Tanks can wear
heavy armor to soften enemies’ blows – or have enough agility to
avoid them. However, tanking generally means taking the brunt
of the damage – if you pull agro and the mob attacks you, you
are tanking. Coercers make poor tanks!
Tier1-6/T1-6
Refers to levels of characters, zones, spells, items, etc. In
general, everything associated with: levels 1-9 = Tier1/T1; 10-19
= Tier2/T2; 20-29 = Tier3/T3; 30-39 = Tier 4/T4; 40-50 =
Tier5/T5; 51-60 = Tier6/T6.
XP
Experience – Experience is how you level. Everything you kill,
every quest you complete, and every new place you discover
gives you experience. XPing generally refers to the act of killing
to get XP.